No fallout expected from Windies loss: Gibson

Colombo - West Indies coach Ottis Gibson has downplayed the loss to Sri Lanka in the opening warm-up game ahead of the World Twenty20 Championship starting here next week.

The Caribbean side could only muster 132/6 of their 20 overs and Sri Lanka easily chased down the target courtesy of unbeaten half-centuries from Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan, reports CMC.

“It was an opportunity to give other people a chance. Obviously you’d like to win every game you play but the reality is this is just a warm up,” Gibson said.

“Looking at the World Cup as a whole we will need our bench strength so it was an opportunity to give those guys a run out.”

West Indies got a top score of 30 from rookie stroke-maker Johnson Charles while left-hander Darren Bravo got 29 and Kieron Pollard, 28 not out, but none of the Windies batsmen found top gear.

Both openers failed with Lendl Simmons (2) and Dwayne Smith (5) falling cheaply.

“We didn’t bat particularly well and lost wickets at key stages. But 133 on that wicket – some balls were keeping low and stuff like that – seemed to be a challenging total but obviously when they batted they made it look very easy,” Gibson explained.

“We didn’t bowl particularly well and that’s something we have to look at.”

West Indies are being touted as one of the favourites for the Sep 18 to Oct 7 tournament and will compete in Group B alongside Australia and Ireland.

Gibson said he did not expect any major fallout from the loss and backed his team to remain focused.

“We only flew in here two days ago so our guys are still trying to adjust to the conditions. I thought Johnson Charles batted very well for us and young Darren Bravo in the middle order played well for us,” Gibson said.

“Nobody likes to lose but hopefully that won’t dampen the team spirit that we’ve built up in the camp and we look forward to the game against Afghanistan in two days time.”